Becoming Friends
by xxPurpleStars3xx
Summary: Max tries to find out why Eleven hates her. Set between the ending and the epilogue.


**Disclaimer: I don't own Stranger Things.**

 **So I watched the new season in a little more than 24 hours (2 jobs in two days doesn't leave much time for TV), and I loved jealous Eleven, but I wanted to write a scene where's it's just Max and Eleven and Eleven explains why she's so cold to Max. Set in the month between the final scene and the epilogue because I feel like Max and Eleven would have a good relationship by then.**

The boys, Max and Jane were hanging out at Jane and the Chief's house. Jane was only allowed to be in two places: her house and Will's house.

Eleven started going by Jane when Hopper had presented her with a birth certificate with "Jane Hopper" on it something that made her cry.

Of course, everybody still called her "El" sometimes out of habit; so calling her something different was new to him.

There was a sort of tension between the four boys and two girls for the first few days after everything had quieted down. Will had never met Jane and didn't know how to act around her and in return Jane didn't know how to handle being around Will _and_ Max.

Especially Max.

It didn't take long for the group to realize that when Max would come over to Jane and Hopper or Will's houses, Jane barely even acknowledged her. Didn't even speak to her if she didn't have to.

One day when Max knew she could be only with the other girl, she told her parents and stepbrother she was going to the arcade.

Max road her skateboard to the Sheriff's department where Hopper was. He was very surprised to see the redhead.

"'Watcha need, kid?" Jim asked the kid, getting a cup of coffee.

"I need you to drive me to your house. My skateboard won't make it all the way to your house," Max said.

"None of the boys are going to the house?"

"No, and I want to talk to El alone."

Jim gave the middle schooler a look.

"Kid, I don't like the idea of you being alone with her right now."

"Why?"

"Because you don't know what she can do."

"I've been with her before."

"Yeah," Hopper said, "with the boys or me or Joyce or anybody who knows what Jane is capable of. If you get he riled up, she's _not_ going to be happy and you'll get hurt."

"I can take care of myself," Max said.

Jim sighed and stopped pouring his coffee. He set it down on his desk and grabbed his coat.

"Let's go," he said. Max and him left the station, Hopper letting everybody know he would be taking a half-day and not to disturb him unless it was an absolute emergency.

It was a quiet ride all the way to the Hopper household.

"Now," Hopper stated, "I will be outside just in case things get out of hand. I was just wondering _why_ you want to come alone."

"I want to find out why she doesn't like me, and I can't do that with the boys around, _especially_ Mike."

Hopper nodded, knowing there was some tension between the two girls, but neither her nor Max knew the reason. In all honesty, Hopper thought that Jane was jealous of Max; little did he know how right he was.

He parked and the two went to the house. There was no noise, but Hopper knew that Jane was talking to Mike through the new walkie-talkie Hopper had gotten her.

Hopper knew that she wanted to speak to Mike and the boys even when they were gone, so he got her her own walkie. There was an unspoken pact by the six-person group that Mike and Eleven would have their own channel, the one Dustin kept finding Mike on two weeks beforehand.

The same went for Lucas and Max, whom had gotten her own walkie-talkie as soon as she could so she could stay in touch with everybody when they were separate.

It was like they were in their own secret club that no one could know about.

Mike and the rest of the boys were grounded because they stayed out past their curfew, or they'd be over at Hopper's house, which they would do every chance they got to see Eleven.

Hopper did his special knock and the familiar sounds of several locks being unlocked were heard.

"Hopper's home early," the two intruders heard Mike softly say.

"Have to see what he wants," Jane said. "Talk later?"

"Talk later," Mike said and the two shut off their walkie-talkies.

Hopper knocked on Jane's door and said, "You have a visitor. I'll be outside if you need me."

Jane got off her bed and unlocked the door by hand. She had learned (and been told), that just because she had the _power_ to do things, that she shouldn't always be relying on them.

She opened the door, saw Max, and immediately shut it.

"I don't want to talk to her," she said.

"El, open up the door. You're going to have to do this sooner or later."

"I choose later."

Max pushed Hopper aside.

"Jane, listen to me. Whatever I did to upset you I'm sorry about that. I don't know what it is though that I'm apologizing for since you won't tell me," Max said.

Jane sighed, knowing that she should "Be the bigger person" as Hopper put it sometimes, a phrase that Jane never really got.

She opened the door again and invited Max in. She saw Hopper going outside, not wanting to invade on the girls' privacy, something that both girls were vey happy about.

"So, why are you mad?" Max went straight into it.

"The first time I appeared to you was the first time you saw me," Jane started off.

"Okay…"

"It wasn't the first time I saw you."

"So then when _was_ the first time you saw me?"

"It was the first time I went outside without Hopper's permission. The second time was the time I came back and destroyed the Demogorgon. The first time was a day before that. I wanted to see Mike so bad I left the house and went to the school."

"But when did you see me?" Max asked.

"Gym," was all Jane said. "You were riding around Mike and he was smiling and laughing."

It then hit Max what was going on.

"Jane…were you… _jealous_?"

"'Jealous'?" Jane asked like she had never heard the word before.

"It's when you want something someone else has. Like, I'm jealous of your friendship with the boys. You knew them long before I did. Well, you had nothing to worry about. Mike didn't even want me in their group until the very end of that week," Max explained. "I bet it was hard. Not seeing him for a long time and then seeing him with some other girl."

"I thought he liked you. That you would…go to the Snow Ball together."

"He liked _you_. He was mad that I was trying to invade or something and that you were part of the group. I just wanted to feel wanted. I understand it's easy to feel territorial about someone."

Jane ignored the word "Territorial", not understanding what it meant and didn't want to ask at this time.

Hopper and peeked through a shade that had been "forgotten" to be pulled down, Eleven's only view of the outside world. Nothing had been broken so he took that as a good sign.

"Sorry about making you fall," Jane apologized.

" _You_ made me fall off my board?" Max asked. Jane nodded. "So you were looking at the window, saw Mike laughing and smiling, got jealous and knocked me off my skateboard?"

Jane nodded.

"Jane, if it makes you feel better, Mike and I have _never_ been interested in each other. I barely even knew him! I literally walked into class one day and the rest of the day these four boys were stalking me. These two weirdos asked me to trick or treat and suddenly I'm thrust into this whole entire world of secrets and teenage boys. Honestly, it's nothing to worry about."

Eleven looked down, ashamed, like what she had seen on TV shows many times.

"I was jealous of Mike with another girl," Jane admitted.

Max carefully put her hand on the other's girl's back and rubbed it up and down, a gesture of comfort.

"He likes _you_ and I like Lucas. Believe me, nothing was _ever_ going to happen with Mike. Not even close," Max said.

Jane smiled at the redhead.

"Can we be friends, now?" Max asked.

"Friends." Jane nodded.

In the next few days, the boys were ungrounded and they hung out at Jane's house. The boys didn't know why Jane wasn't being rude to Max, but was smiling and laughing with her.

"We're friends now," Max answered when Mike asked.

The four boys looked at each other, astonished.

"Wanna explain the reason why things changed? Not that I'm not happy about it," Mike said.

"Let's just say there was a…misunderstanding…and we fixed it," Jane said, setting down a tray of goodies that Hopper had brought home earlier.

Jane and Max looked at each other and smiled.

The boys didn't question it, partially wanting to the know the misunderstanding, but partially not wanting to invade their privacy.

Jane and Max were very happy about their new friendship and as Jane looked around to her old friends and new, she felt her heart couldn't be more full.

 **So, there we go. I haven't written Stranger Things in a while…I actually haven't written** _ **anything**_ **in a while (minus that one Gilmore Girls chapter), so constructive criticism would be nice but no flames.**

 **Until next time!**


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